RED DEER, OR WHITE-TAILED DEER. 189 



the largest to the smallest, and all seem to run together 

 as amicably as would people who differ only in size. 



The red deer, like the elk and black-tail, loses his 

 horns in February, but he undoubtedly suffers very little 

 from their renewal. He does not seek solitude or moun- 

 tain fastnesses during their growth, but remains about his 

 usual haunts, and in company with others of his kind. 



The rapid growth of this huge frontlet seems to have 

 no effect either on his disposition or his habits, except that, 

 while it is hardening, he betakes himself on hot days to 

 some sunny spot, ' drying his horns.' as hunters term it. 

 This is remarkable, as he naturally loves damp, shady 

 places, and except at this particular season, or in winter, I 

 have never seen a red deer lie down in the sun. 



The red deer is not migratory, and can generally be 

 found all the year round in the vicinity of his chosen 

 haunt. When located in the neighbourhood of moun- 

 tains, or on ground likely to be affected by the black- 

 tail, he has to give way to the larger, more powerful, 

 and more pugnacious animal. In August, therefore, 

 as the black-tails come down to select their fall and 

 winter residences, the red deer (or white-tail, as he 

 is commonly called wherever there are black-tails) 

 moves down in lower country and away from the im- 

 mediate neighbourhood of the black-tails. The habits 

 of the animals are so dissimilar, however, that they rarely 

 come in contact; the black-tail preferring the tops of 

 canons and high rocky ridges, while the white-tail is 

 better satisfied in the dark, shady dells at the bottoms of 

 the canons. If the country is very broken, it is not un- 

 usual to bag black and white-tails in the same day's 

 hunt, and sometimes even near each other, on the tops 

 and at the bottoms of the same ravines. Such cases are 

 evidence that there is plenty of food on the summits ; for 

 when the black-tails come into the valleys to feed, as 

 they do in the late fall and winter, the white-tails 

 decamp and abandon that vicinity. 



